https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm22/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/1158760

Ahmed, M. I., Shook, K., Pietroniro, A., Stadnyk, T., Pomeroy, J. W., Pers, C., David, G. (2022) Accounting For Dynamic Contributing Areas in The HYPE Model Framework. American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting, Chicago, USA, December 12 to December 16, 2022. https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm22/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/1158760

The North American prairie region is known for having flat terrain, containing millions of depressions, which result in many internally drained basins. Consequently, much of the region does not contribute flows to basin outlet when few depressions are filled. When many depressions are filled, from accumulated precipitation, trapping blowing snow and from snowmelt runoff, the contributing area of a basin is much greater. This phenomenon is poorly represented in most hydrological models, making them unable to simulate prairie streamflows accurately. This study improves the representation of the contributing area dynamics in the Hydrological Predictions for the Environment (HYPE) modelling framework. This is done by implementing a novel Hysteretic Depressional Model (HDM) in HYPE to simulate the variable contributing area and outflows of depression dominated basins. The modified HYPE model shows improved simulation of streamflows, compared to the original version of the model, at two prairie basins dominated by depressional storage in Saskatchewan, Canada. The modified model was also able to capture the dynamics of the contributing area and its relationships with the storage within a basin. The modified version of HYPE can be used to simulate streamflows in the prairies and in pan-arctic areas dominated by depressional storage.

https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm22/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/1158760